1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a transfer recording method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In office automation terminal such as facsimiles, printers, copying machines etc. which have lately been rapidly spread, there has been an increasing demand for color recording having a capacity for a great amount of information and also being visually preferable. On the other hand, the development of techniques of color recording of television images has been sought.
Currently, for these purposes, color recording techniques by electron photography, an ink-jet process, a heat-sensitive transfer process etc. are being under study.
Of those, the heat-sensitive transfer process is more advantageous as compared with the other processes since the maintenance and operation of the device are easier and the device and expendable supplies are less expensive.
The heat-sensitive transfer process may be classified into two, namely, a molten transfer process which comprises heat melting a dye layer formed on a base using a heat-sensitive head, thereby transfer recording on a recording sheet, and a sublimation transfer process which comprises forming a dye layer containing a sublimable dye on a base and heating it by a heat-sensitive head, thereby subliming the dye and transfer recording on a recording sheet, and the latter is believed particularly advantageous for full color recording, because gradation recording is easy since it is possible to control the amount of the dye to be sublimed and transferred by controlling the energy applied to the heat-sensitive head.
The dye for use in the above-described sublimation transfer process is desirably a dye as much sublimable as possible in order to reduce the burden on the heat-sensitive head or to increase the recording speed, but such an easily sublimable dye, during a long-term storage period or under high-temperature, high-moisture environment, had a problem with the recording stability, because the dye re-sublimed from the recording sheet and hence deteriorated the recording and migrated to contracted objects thus staining them.
As a method for solving such a problem, it is contemplated to prevent the re-sublimation by laminating the surface of the recording sheet with a resin film after transfer recording.
However, in such a method, since it is necessary to use a material and a device for laminating and also the device assembly itself becomes larger and more complicated, further improvement is being desired.